Donnarumma hasn’t tried to convince Guardiola to join Italy set-up yet: ‘Not up to me’ | OneFootball

Gianluigi Donnarumma says that he has had a ‘great time’ working under Pep Guardiola in 2025-26, but says that he hasn’t made any attempts to convince the legendary tactician to take over the vacant Italy national team job yet: ‘Those choices aren’t up to me’.

Donnarumma discusses Guardiola links to vacant Italy job

Italy are without a permanent head coach following the departure of Gennaro Gattuso earlier this year and a replacement will not be appointed before the FIGC Presidential elections take place on June 22.

For now, Italy are being led by U21 coach Silvio Baldini on an interim basis. He will lead the Azzurri into a series of international friendlies against Luxembourg on June 3 and against Greece on June 7 and has named a squad that is largely made up of players he knows well from the youth set-up.

Of the 24 players called up to the Italy squad, only Donnarumma, Marco Palestra, Niccolo Pisilli and Pio Esposito have been previously capped at senior level.

BERGAMO, ITALY – MARCH 26: Gianluigi Donnarumma on March 26, 2026 in Bergamo, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

Donnarumma had his opportunity to speak to the media during his press conference on Friday and among the topics of discussion was the appointment of a new, permanent CT.

Antonio Conte is still among the frontrunners, but there have been suggestions that the ‘dream’ candidate is Guardiola, who Donnarumma signed for at the start of the 2025-26 season.

“I had a great time with the coach, he made history at City and I’d hoped he would continue,” said Donnarumma.

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 18: Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City, reacts during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD1 match between Manchester City and SSC Napoli at City of Manchester Stadium on September 18, 2025 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

“But his desire was to stop. I haven’t talked to him about the possibility of coaching Italy, those choices aren’t up to me, but the new President.

“Surely whoever comes in will have to give everything for the Azzurri shirt and to achieve our goals.”

Click here to read Donnarumma’s press conference in full.